As Cyclone Fani was hundreds of miles away, authorities had been closely watching. They had first picked up a large swirl on the meteorological radar screens barreling up from the equator, deep in the ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia. As reported by New York Times. Indian Meteorological Department’s (IMD) press release on April 28th which clearly stated that cyclone Fani will strengthen into a severe and then very severe cyclonic storm. A red alert was declared to the north eastern coastal area. Cyclone ‘Fani’ slammed into Odisha on Friday, May 3rd morning with the force of a major hurricane, recorded 120 mph winds.
Trees were uprooted from the ground and many coastal shacks smashed. It could have been catastrophic. But government authorities in Odisha were proactive, to warn the people of what was coming, they deployed everything they had: 2.6 million text messages, 43,000 volunteers, nearly 1,000 emergency workers, television commercials, coastal sirens, buses, police officers, and public address systems blaring the same message on a loop, in the local language. While trains and flights remain cancelled until May 6th.
Several churches, including St. Vincent’s Pro-Cathedral Church and the residence of the archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar were severely hit during the storm, considered the worst in the past 20 years. It reminded people about the super cyclone of October 29, 1999, that killed about 10,000 people, and caused extreme damage in its path of destruction.
The UN children’s agency said the cyclone currently hammering India and the back-to-back cyclones that tore through Mozambique in March and April have caused serious damage to the lives of thousands of children. There should be an urgent wake-up call to world leaders on the serious risks that extreme weather events pose to the lives of children. In Odisha, 28 million people, including 10 million children, are in the path of Cyclone Fani, UNICEF said. According to Indian Metereological Department (IMD), the forecast that Cyclone Fani would move north-northeast towards Bangladesh where there were concerns about the effects of potential coastal flooding.
